Aerial bombardment kills 19 in Syria's Aleppo: activists

At least 19 people were killed on Saturday by aerial bombardment on rebel-held areas in the country's northern city of Aleppo, a monitor group reported.

Aircrafts dropped several barrel bombs on a number of rebel-held areas in Aleppo, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It said half of those killed were women and children amid ongoing battles at the city's outskirts.

The violence in Aleppo has largely spiked recently with intense battles between the Syrian army and the rebels, including the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, amid ongoing shelling on residential areas in rebel-held areas and government-controlled districts by both parties.

The Nusra Front and likeminded groups unleashed several offensives recently to retaliate against the government troops' advance and control over the last supply route the rebels use to smuggle in arms and fighters from the northern countryside of Aleppo into the city's rebel-held eastern part.

The Syrian army in return continued to pound rebel areas and advance in Aleppo countryside to isolate the rebels in Aleppo city and force them to surrender, due to the strategic importance of the province, Syria's largest, and once and economic hub near Turkey. Endit